Jefferson Lake

John-Joe O’Toole admits there have been times this season when he felt he would never open his goalscoring account for the Cobblers.

The midfielder ended a goalless first five months in Northampton Town colours with the team’s second goal in their 2-0 win at Exeter City on Saturday.

It capped an improved performance from a player who has been in much better form since returning from his pre-Christmas loan spell at Southend United.

O’Toole was taken to Sixfields as a goalscoring midfielder after notching 15 times for Bristol Rovers last term but feared the worst after a barren run for his new club.

“It felt really good to score,” he said. “It’s been a while now and it’s felt at times this season like it was never going to come.

“It hasn’t been for the fact of not trying, it’s just the ball hasn’t dropped to me or I haven’t been getting on the end of things like I was last year.

“Sometimes you feel like it’s never going to come but thankfully it has and I’ll want to get a few more now.”

As well as failing to score, O’Toole has produced some mixed performances in the first half of his debut season as a Cobbler, and found himself left out of matchday squads altogether prior to his temporary move to Southend.

But the 26-year-old is confident he can keep improving after finally opening his goalscoring account in possibly his best Northampton performance to date.

“It’s been a long time coming and it obviously hasn’t been a great start for me here,” he said. “It’s not ideal that it’s come this late but hopefully I can just kick on from here.

“I can’t quite put my finger on why it hasn’t been working, it could be a number of things but the fact is it hasn’t been.

“Hopefully this will kick it off. We’re not doing great in the league but hopefully I can salvage something out of this year because it has been a bad start.”